Can’t-Miss Conference Highlights

Can you believe it? The 2019 spring conference in Baltimore is finally here!

Guests are checking into their hotel rooms, speakers are going over their notes one last time, and everybody should be getting ready to learn a whole lot.

One last chance to grab your notepads and sharpen those pencils—you don’t want to be caught unprepared when you hear the perfect pearl of wisdom you can apply to your practice right away!

Yes, in case you haven’t heard, we’re really excited about this conference! We really think it’s going to be a blast for our members and one of our best ever, with a greater focus on collaboration, teamwork, and facilitated discussion groups on your most requested topics.

That’s right—this is the YOU conference. You told us what your biggest issues were in your practice, and what you needed to talk about. And it’ll be YOU helping decide the pace and direction of the conversation.

Here are a few things we’re particularly looking forward to this weekend.

A New CMOM-POD Graduating Class!

We all know it—podiatry office managers face unique challenges that most other “generic” medical office managers just don’t have to worry about.

“There are certain things we do every day that your normal everyday medical practices don’t do and don’t have to deal with,” says CMOM-POD graduate and instructor Brooke Weaver, CMOM, CMOM- POD, FAAPPM. “Regular practices don’t market. Regular practices don’t do DME. But we needed that component.”

That’s why, in partnership with the Project Management Institute, the AAPPM developed CMOM-POD—an exclusive program that is the only executive office manager certification available specifically for podiatry. Finally, there was a place where podiatric office managers could go to get the comprehensive training they needed—and credentials to prove their mastery.

No matter how long a practice manager has been in their current role, CMOM-POD certification provides essential training and knowledge that can help every practice improve compliance, employee relations, efficiency, and financial stability. We’re looking forward to celebrating with the class of spring 2019!

Learn What It Takes to Be Successful in a Medical Practice

The Thursday general session starts off with a bang! In a fast-paced three-hour session facilitated by a trio of practice management and marketing experts, you’ll learn the simplest yet most powerful strategies that the most successful practices use to streamline operations, navigate risks, set and attain goals, and even improve patient care.

Following lunch, the team is back with another half-day interactive session where you’ll work on developing the practical skills you’ll need to overcome the most common obstacles to professional and personal success. And the evening caps off with a two-hour “fireside chat,” where you’ll be able to ask questions and discuss what you’ve learned in a more informal environment.

Don’t forget your notepad, because the pearls will be coming fast and furious today!

An In-Depth Track for MAs

The AAPPM isn’t just for doctors, or even doctors and office managers. Your medical assistants are a critical part of your team.

MAs with advanced training obviously provide better patient care, but they can make a huge difference on the business side, too! Higher patient satisfaction and compliance means they’re more likely to come back, recommend you to others, and leave positive reviews. And crucial clinical and administrative skills that improve office flow and efficiency mean you can see more patients in a day, while making fewer costly errors.

The Friday afternoon MA workshops will focus on building practical skills (through hands-on training) for wound care, CDFE, diabetic shoes and inserts, ankle-foot orthosis casting, strapping, padding, and more. These services can provide a significant boost to the practice’s bottom line, and a skilled MA is a huge asset for making sure that these treatments work correctly and patients buy in.

Of course, let’s not forget that MAs can also rack up continuing education credits at this conference—a total of 14 PMAC will be available for conference attendees to earn!

Complimentary Consultations

They don’t call us the “friendliest group in podiatry” for nothing.

There’s nowhere in the industry you can get this level of access to experts in every field, with the freedom to have informal discussions with people who have the knowledge and experience to help you overcome your greatest challenges.

And that of course extends to our speakers and consultant partners, who—as always—are offering totally free 30-minute consultations (first-come, first-serve) to those who want to schedule them. So bring your toughest questions and get the specific, focused advice you need!

Making Personal Connections

Of course, not every pearl you discover this weekend will necessarily come from a facilitated roundtable, guided interactive session, or even a 30-minute consultation with one of our experts.

Sometimes the biggest epiphanies can arise out of informal conversation with colleagues—perhaps at our popular Breakfast and Learn session, or perhaps while enjoying a pint at a Fell’s Point pub!

When you get a large group of friendly, intelligent people with a shared set of skills and experiences and a common purpose, great things happen. Great ideas are born. Nobody has all the answers, but somebody here will—and they’ll be happy to share!

Making and strengthening these personal connections is one of the most important and valuable benefits of attending any AAPPM conference, and always a highlight of the weekend.

A New Place to Explore

If you’ve never visited Baltimore—and specifically, the Inner Harbor—you might be surprised by just how much fun you’ll have exploring one of America’s great historic cities!

History buffs will love checking out the historic ship collection, touring Fort McHenry (and seeing the original Star-Spangled Banner that inspired our national anthem), visiting the railway museum, or even exploring historic Fell’s Point.

Art lovers will have their pick of three world-class museums (Baltimore Art Museum, American Visionary Art Museum, Walters Museum) and countless independent galleries to stroll through.

And of course, in the revitalized Inner Harbor district surrounding the hotel, fine dining, shopping, and sightseeing is around every corner.

A Great Day for Some Big Winners

In addition to all the exclusive knowledge, eye-opening discussions, and even sweet deals on products and services from our corporate partners, we’ll also be giving away some absolutely awesome swag to a few lucky attendees!

That includes:

A FREE registration to the Top Practices Summit in San Antonio this September, where you’ll learn to master the simple systems and tools industry leaders use to market, manage, and love their practices.

A FREE customized website for your practice built by VMD Services, which will help give your practice a major leg up in branding and marketing and a powerful, SEO optimized engine to draw in patients searching for foot care online.

There so much excitement to come this week, we just can’t contain ourselves!

To those who are with us already in Baltimore (or on their way), thanks so much for joining us! Whether this is your first conference or you’ve been coming for years, we’re thrilled to have you here!

And if you’re not coming, but reading this blog is giving you a severe case of FOMO (that’s short for “fear of missing out”), take heart—our next action-packed conference will be this fall, November 7-9, in Daytona Beach. See you soon!